How Christians Are Justified, Sanctified and Glorified

Christian salvation is many things, but how are they justified, then sanctified and finally, glorified?

Justified by Faith in Christ

Christian salvation is many things, but how are they justified, then sanctified and finally, glorified? We are justified by the free gift of grace by God (Eph 2:8-9) when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and believe for eternal life (John 3:16), and it’s eternal, not temporary. Jesus said “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). It is God’s will that He “should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). Further, Jesus said it is precisely “the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

Giver of Eternal Life

Jesus Himself said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). Whoever believes in Christ is eternally secure and not even death can separate them from our Lord (Rom 8:38). Those who die in the faith and those living in the faith at Christ’s return have eternal life. Again, the Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this” (John 10:28-29)? Whether you pass away before His return or are alive at His coming, you “shall never die.” He bore our sin so that we might have His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21); enough so we can enter heaven and God’s presence without being incinerated.

Sanctified By the Word of God

In John 17:17 Jesus says, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” It is not a truth but “the truth” of His Word that sanctifies. God’s Word sanctifies us because “it is the power (lit. “energy”) of God for salvation” (1 Rom/1 Cor 1:18). We are not that power, but God’s Word has power…the power to save and to sanctify. God has to open our minds to understand the Word and that comes by the Spirit. On one occasion, Christ Himself “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). You can’t be saved by the Spirit alone but the Spirit and the Word working together. It takes the Spirit of God and the Word of God and the will of God to birth a child of God. The Bible has the power to save but someone must share the Word and that should be us (Isaiah 6:8). Paul asks the rhetorical question, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching” (Rom 10:14)? Paul is saying that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17), so we must speak up! Even as you read this, the Word of God “is at work in you believer” (1 Thess 2:13c).

The Washing of the Word

Christ’s desire is “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:26), showing the Word has cleansing or sanctifying power. He does this cleansing us through Scripture, “so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).

Sanctified By the Spirit

God alone can open our hearts to receive and believe the truth just as “The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14b). We can only produce fruit by His power (John 15:5). As we live lives by His Spirit and His power, “the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Rom 6:22). At one time, we lived lives that displeased God and did things that the world does now, but you and I “were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). We are slowing being sanctified by the Spirit, leading us to live more like Christ, and we are presently “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:19). God is working in us and through us, “Having begun by the Spirit…” (Gal 3:3). This is why Paul could say, “we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thess 2:13). There it is; it is the Word and the Spirit working together in our salvation. Amazingly, this was “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Pet 1:2).

Glorified

We can’t pinpoint what we will be like after Christ’s return. Some will have more glory than others, I presume, but we do know that “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Dan 12:3). Who are the “wise?” It is those who trust in God. Jesus Himself said that “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). Even though our bodies are “sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15:42). We also know that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself” (Phil 3:20-21). The Apostle John knew our bodies would be glorified after the final resurrection, saying that “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2b).

Conclusion

For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, are the same “whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:30). We were justified, we are being sanctified, and someday, we will be glorified. The Book of Revelation and elsewhere says we are called to be leaders, some priests, rulers, governors, and some rulers of five cities, and some of ten cities, and so on. God didn’t call us and prepare us a kingdom to sit around and play the harp on cloud nine. He has a purpose for us in this day (to witness) and in the future (to rule). Whatever that purpose is for you in the kingdom, I have no clue. God knows and so that’s all that matters.

Rescued From Wrath

I pray you have put your trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If that has not happened yet, you are in real mortal and eternal danger. Like all mankind, you are one breath, one heartbeat…one accident away from eternity when it will be too late to repent. Today is the best day to believe (2 Cor 6:2) since tomorrow is no guarantee. If Jesus Christ came today, here is your fate (Matt 7:21-23). This is why I plead with you as you read this, repent today…and I mean right now. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you do not, you will face God’s judgment after death guaranteed (Heb 9:27) or at Jesus Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), which could happen at any moment.

Here is some related reading for you: What Is Sanctification? A Bible Study

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Glorified, Justification, justified, sanctification, Sanctified